The invention relates generally to absorbent beauty coils, and more particularly concerns a covered beauty coil, the characteristics of which result in improved absorption of liquids, increased strength, and improved protection of a user's skin.
Absorbent beauty coils are used by persons obtaining hair or scalp treatments, particularly permanent waving treatments, to provide a liquid absorbent barrier between the head area being treated and the face area which may be irritated by liquids used in such treatments. Such absorbent beauty coils are wrapped around the user's head, following the hairline, and are intended to absorb any excess liquid that exudes from the user's hair. Absorbent beauty coils must be highly absorptive, soft to the user's skin, strong enough not to tear when wet or when wrapped around a user's head, and relatively lint free such that absorptive fibers do not cling to the user's wet hair. In addition, the surface of the beauty coil should remain relatively dry in order to minimize irritation to the skin.
A number of manufacturers make unwrapped beauty coils, including Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the assignee of the present invention. Kimberly-Clark Corporation manufactures and sells a beauty coil under the trademark Cellucotton which beauty coil may also incorporate a reinforcing strip. Other beauty coils include the Empress and Dutchess line of reinforced and unreinforced cotton beauty coils manufactured by the National Patent Development Corporation, Acme/Chaston Division, New York, N.Y. BNT Company, Inc. of Lakeland, Fla. manufactures the reinforced Omnia Cosmetic Beauty Coil. Coillir Manufacturing, Inc. of North Royalton, Ohio manufactures the nonreinforced Coillir Beauty Coil. Carolina Absorbent Company, a division of Barnhardt Manufacturing Company of Charlotte, N.C., manufactures reinforced and nonreinforced Princess and Your Highness Beauty Coils. Megas Manufacturing, Inc. of Cleveland, Ohio manufactures the Sof-Coil Reinforced Beauty Coil. Little Rapids Corporation of Green Bay, Wis. manufactures the reinforced Soft-Sorb Beauty Coil. Witten Manufacturing Company, Inc. of Gastonia, N.C. manufactures reinforced and nonreinforced BeautiSoft Absorbent Coil. These absorbent beauty coil products are simply carded slivers of absorbent material without any outside covering. Such prior art coils become saturated in use resulting in drippage and skin burning or irritation.
Other prior art products which relate to hair and scalp treatments include certain barrier or trough devices and forehead shields. The patents describing such products do not disclose or teach the wicking action utilized by the beauty coil of the present invention.
McBride U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,308 discloses a hairholding device composed of a metal or plastic partially oval-shaped cross-sectioned skirt portion and an edge portion along the underside of the skirt portion, to which a strip of felt or sponge may be secured for frictional and sealing contact. Mason et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,680 discloses a protective visor for hair and scalp treatments. The visor is a planar strip of flexible material having a substantially crescent shape and a raised rib along the inner edge of the crescent-shaped strip. This visor creates a liquid impermeable barrier between the user's scalp and the user's face and neck. McNutt U.S. Pat. No. 2,023,279 discloses a forehead shield for beauty work comprising plies of creped gauze tissue paper having longitudinal parallel short impressors for binding the plies together. The shield is designed to protect the face from the impressions formed by a hairnet placed on the head.
Other prior art products which are designed to absorb perspiration rather than beauty treatment fluids may incorporate the sausage-or envelope-like design embodied in the beauty coil of the present invention. Because perspiration is evenly distributed around the user's head, such products do not require longitudinal wicking to utilize the absorbent capacity completely. Consequently, those prior art products do not incorporate or disclose the wicking action of the coil of the present invention and are designed to absorb comparatively less liquid than the coil of the present invention. Smilie U.S. Pat. No. 1,484,042 discloses an athletic eyeguard comprising a trough containing absorbent cotton enclosed in an envelope of cotton gauze held against the forehead by a visor or other headgear. Knepper U.S. Pat. No. 1,697,919 discloses a perspiration pad composed of an absorbent filler enclosed in a covering of gauze which is wrapped around the filler. Kleinman U.S. Pat. No. 2,265,530 discloses a sweatband composed of a number of absorbent "wicks" or cores enclosed in a leather headband, one side of which is waterproof fabric, the other side leather. Lippmann U.S. Pat. No. 2,544,798 discloses a sweatband having an inner cushion made of interlaced or matted staple fibers. The fibers are thermoplastic material and the surface of the cushion is a densified skin. The cushion is enclosed in an outer textile fabric envelope. The inner fibrous cushion is skinned in order to prevent any staple fibers from slipping out through the fabric envelope and to assist in preventing perspiration from passing through the sweatband from the head side to the hat fabric. Campagna et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,783,474 discloses a fibrous and absorbent perspiration pad made of a carded batt of cellulose acetate and bleached cotton fibers, enclosed in a woven fabric such as cheesecloth.
One prior art fabric discloses the moisture-transferring or "wicking" ability of nonwoven polypropylene fabric which has the fibers on one side fused and the fibers on the opposite side unfused. When wetted, such fabric exhibits a wet feeling on the fused side and a substantially dry feeling on the unfused side. Wishman U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,156 discloses that this characteristic of nonwoven polypropylene fabric is "apparently attributable to the capacity of polypropylene fibers to cause the wicking or migrating of moisture therethrough." Col. 5, lines 4-8. The beauty coil of the present invention does not incorporate such fusing.